The Research Centre for Retail Management (IRM-HSG) investigated how popular the Metaverse is with users. Professor Thomas Rudolph derives considerable opportunities for retail in the metaverse from the study.
"Our exhibition appealed to people from research and companies as well as a broad audience from the general public," explains Thomas Rudolph, who is leading the research project together with Andreas Hauschke. An important goal was to explore question of how the applications are received by users.
To make the Metaverse tangible, 16 stations were set up in SQUARE where visitors could try out different apps using virtual reality glasses. Visitors met Michelle and Barak Obama in the White House, travelled to the Arctic on an icebreaker, explored every muscle and organ of the human body, sprayed graffiti on the side of a train, played golf or went shopping in a virtual store. "The Metaverse is a new world in which you can travel, shop, work, play, educate yourself or relax," explains Thomas Rudolph. He admitted, however, that there is still a long way to go before the Metaverse is established. It is already frequently used by a younger generation, especially in the gaming sector. He stated for example that "the Metaverse 1.0 online gaming platforms Fortnite has 230 million users worldwide every day and Roblox has 70 million."
“The Metaverse is a new world in which you can travel, shop, work, play, educate yourself or relax.”
During the exhibition, those managing the project asked 451 visitors how they rated the overall experience in the Metaverse and asked about relevant features such as inspiration, immersion and realism. Immersion refers to the effect that users perceive the virtual environment of the Metaverse as real. The survey showed that respondents across all age groups assessed their perception of Metaverse applications as “good” to “very good”. Surprisingly, it was not the digital-savvy members of Generation Z who were particularly open to Metaverse, it was the over-50s who were most inspired by the possibilities. In addition, almost 60 percent of 35 to 49-year-olds could imagine shopping virtually in the Metaverse.
However, it is also interesting to note that the respondents perceived their time in the Metaverse more as a supplement to real life and not as a place of refuge to escape the problems of everyday life, mentioned Thomas Rudolph. "Users seem to be able to differentiate between the real and virtual worlds. Many stated that they did not see any risk of addiction or displacement from reality in the Metaverse."
Thomas Rudolph and his team derived recommendations for companies from the results of the study, which were published under the title "Opportunities for Retailers in the Metaverse". "The great opportunity for retailers lies in the possibility of addressing consumers in a more experiential and inspiring way. The Metaverse immerses you in a three-dimensional world that is much more emotionally engaging. Virtual and real elements merge into an interactive experience," explains the Professor of Retail Management.
“The great opportunity for retailers lies in the possibility of addressing consumers in a more experience-orientated and inspiring way.”
Thomas Rudolph gives specific examples of possible applications. "In the Metaverse, customers can try on shoes and glasses digitally or place furniture in their home digitally to decide which product suits them best. In the remote maintenance of machines, specialised technicians can use virtual reality glasses to guide a mechanic onsite during repairs and virtual workstations allow employees to interact with each other." The Human Anatomy VR app shown in the Metaverse Discovery @SQUARE exhibition, which allows you to view the human body in detail, is in turn interesting for the training of future doctors.
The Metaverse is still in its early stages of development. "The visual world construction of the Metaverse apps is not yet fully developed and there is a lack of VR glasses suitable for mass use. What's more, conventional computers don't have the computing speed required for the Metaverse," says the HSG professor. However, technical development in the field of virtual reality and augmented reality is rapid. The research projects that are examining the most diverse aspects of the Metaverse around the globe are broad and varied.
And where does Thomas Rudolph place the project of the Research Centre for Retail Management at HSG within this diversity of research? "As far as I know, we were the first in Switzerland to tackle the topic in such a broad experimental and discussion-based context. For example, police corps, vocational schools, companies such as IBM, Globus or the St.Galler Kantonalbank have visited us. Added to this are various HSG researchers and participants in our continuing education events, as well as many school classes and citizens from the canton of St.Gallen and the surrounding area." The focus on various Metaverse applications fits in with the University's innovation and digitalisation strategy and positions HSG at the forefront of research and education in the digital age.
Prof. Dr Thomas Rudolph is Full Professor of Marketing and International Retail Management at the Research Centre for Retail Management (IRM-HSG). Together with Andreas Hauschke, he heads the research project ‘Metaverse Discovery @SQUARE’.
